A Virtual Private Routed Network (VPRN) is a layer 3 service that uses Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) label stacking to implement a layer 3 Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPRNs allow multiple customer sites to communicate securely at the IP (Internet Protocol) level over a provider-managed IP/MPLS network by creating multiple, distinct customer routed networks that are fully isolated from each other. VPRNs are also known as: “Layer 3 Backbone VPN”, “Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)/MPLS-based VPN”, “Layer 3 MPLS based VPN”; “tag-switching network” or “MPLS-based IP VPN” and are based on the RFC4364 specification form the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
VPRNs can simplify the routing topology at customer sites and can offload the managing of the core network from the customer to the service provider, while maintaining security similar to existing layer 2 technologies such as ATM or Frame Relay. Customers can receive the redundancy benefits designed into the provider core network.
VPRNs use transport tunnels such as, for example, Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) tunnels, Generic Route Encapsulation (GRE) tunnels or Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) Label Switched Path (LSP) tunnels, to encapsulate packet traffic.
Transport tunnels are employed in communications, networks, and networking equipment (e.g., routers, switches, hubs, etc.) to route data between endpoints, such as between provider edge (PE) routers on the edge of a provider network. In some instances, transport tunnels may be used to forward packets through a network that does not support the particular packet protocol in use. For example, a transport tunnel may be used to forward a non-IP packet across an IP network, multicast packets across a unicast network, etc.
Services (e.g., leased lines, virtual leased lines (VLL), VPRNs, etc.) may be bound to a transport tunnel and often numerous services may be associated with a single transport tunnel.
Although auto binding of VPRN services to LDP tunnels and GRE tunnels is possible with commercially available telecommunication equipment, there appears to be no available systems to automatically bind VPRN services over MPLS RSVP LSP type tunnels.
It is not uncommon for telecommunications service providers to assign one group of personnel to provisioning transport tunnels and a second group of personnel to provisioning services on those transport tunnels. These two functions require different knowledge of network parameters and configuration. It is not uncommon to use a command line interface (CLI) at each network node, such as a router or switch for provisioning both the transport tunnels and the services on those tunnels.
In a typical commercial embodiment of a telecommunications network, there can be hundreds of nodes or network elements such as routers and switches and thousands of services running over those nodes. The number of transport tunnels and the number of bindings of services to those tunnels required to provide full-mesh connectivity between network elements or nodes for a VPRN service can be very large for large networks. To illustrate, if the number of network elements is represented by “n”, the number of bindings required to provide full-mesh connectivity would be n2−n. Thus, for example, a network with 200 network elements would require 39800 tunnels and 39800 tunnel bindings for full-mesh connectivity. Manually provisioning a VPRN service over such a network would be very time-consuming, error prone.
Therefore, a means of reducing the time to provision VPRN services and minimize operator error would be desirable.